The Child Custody Protection Act has been proposed multiple times and was most recently introduced by United States Senator John Ensign, a Republican from Nevada. The bill, which has been referred to committee, would prohibit people from transporting a minor across state lines for an abortion without the involvement of the parents.
History
Every session of Congress since 1998 has introduced an almost identical measure, but the bills have never passed. U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham first introduced The Child Custody and Protection Act in February of 1998. Shortly thereafter, U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen introduced an extremely similar measure that eventually passed the House, but not the Senate. The bill’s closest encounter with actually becoming law was in 2006 when both the Senate and House passed the bill, but the Senate passed a slightly different version of the bill than the House. The differences were not resolved before the session expired and the bill died on the table.
Action Regulated
According to the language of the bill, if the state in which a minor lives requires parental involvement before the minor may legally undergo an abortion, a third party would not be able to transport the minor to another state. Presumably, the destination state would not have such legal impediments to abortion, and would not require the involvement of the minor’s parents. The bill would make it a crime, punishable by a fine and up to one year in jail, to transport a minor across state lines to undergo an abortion in this situation.
Exceptions
The bill would provide two exceptions to the rule. One exception would be triggered if the minor’s life is in danger and an abortion was necessary to save it. The minor’s life may be endangered by some physical disorder, injury, or illness or by a life threatening condition resulting from the pregnancy itself. The other exception would be if the parent was the one transferring the minor to a different state to undergo an abortion.
Definitions
According to the language of the bill, it would affect more than just the biological parents of the minor. Under the bill, the term “parents” would also include a legal guardian or custodian, as well as a person who has control over the minor if that person’s state law would require their involvement in a minor’s abortion, even though there is no legal relationship. An example of a person with control over a minor may be an adult with whom the minor lives.
Support
The bill has received support from the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. Cardinal William H. Keeler, chairman of the group, expressed his reasoning in a letter to the U.S. Senate in 2006 after the bill had passed the House. In the letter, Cardinal Keeler opined that a third party, who decides an abortion is appropriate, should not be able to circumvent the parent’s right to protect the minor. Specifically, the letter refers to a trend in which boyfriends or relatives of a minor transport the minor to a state in which parental involvement is not needed to undergo an abortion.
